Ex-Ivorian leader Gbagbo wants to return home after acquittal: daughter

International Criminal Court judges on Wednesday rejected a prosecution request to keep former Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo in detention after his acquittal on crimes against humanity and his daughter said he intends to return to Ivory Coast.

Judges ruled on Tuesday that prosecutors had failed to prove any case against Gbagbo and co-defendant Charles Ble Goude and that his continued detention could no longer be justified. Gbagbo has been in custody for seven years.

On Wednesday, the court rejected a prosecution motion to keep the men in custody for any possible appeal by prosecutors, dismissing the case as “exceptionally weak”.

It is unlikely their acquittals would be overturned by a higher tribunal and the men had assured the court they would return if required, Presiding Judge Cuno Tarfusser said.

Wednesday’s decision paved the way for the speedy release of the two men, although it was unclear where they would immediately go. Discussions about their release were under way with member states, including Belgium, where Gbagbo has family.

Outside the courthouse in The Hague a handful of Gbagbo’s supporters danced, sang and drank champagne.

“My father will not live in any other country than Ivory Coast. He would go back and we expect him to go back,” his daughter, Marie Laurence Gbagbo, told Reuters outside the court.

Marie Laurence Gbagbo declined to comment on the former president’s possible political ambitions, saying: “I can’t speak for my father on this. It is a very delicate question.”

Gbagbo’s acquittal was deplored by victims’ groups representing those who died in violence that killed around 3,000 people during Ivory Coast’s 2010 election, which Gbagbo refused to concede.

Hundreds of thousands fled the unrest that prosecutors blamed on Gbagbo and victims fear his return home could revive hostilities in Abidjan.

“The defendant’s release may increase tensions,” Paolina Massidda, a legal representative of the victims, said at the court in The Hague.

Gbagbo’s lawyers said the prosecution request showed they had not yet come to terms with the scale of their legal defeat.

“Laurent Gbagbo is no longer an accused person. Laurent Gbagbo has been acquitted. He is no longer presumed to be innocent – he has been acknowledged as being innocent,” Gbagbo’s lawyer Emmanuel Altit told the court.

“At stake, your honors, is the natural right to freedom, the freedom of mankind. This is the essence of the debate today. Not procedures,” defense lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops told the judges. “These two individuals have been acquitted.”